Exploitation strategies of the animal environment

Exploitation strategies of the animal environment at the last hunter-gatherers and the first farmers north of the Danube (7.200-5.000 B.C.)

Abstract

The profound climatic changes and the need to identify solutions forthe survival of mankind represent major topics of debate in thecontemporary society. We must know that even since its beginnings, the modern mankind has been faced with climate changes some of them radical, which have left their mark on the strategies related tothe exploitation and the management of the environment, specifically the animal one, and have been reflected in the types of economic practices. By this project proposition, we shall try to analyse, quantifyand compare the effects of a nearly “purely climatic” phenomenon and the effects of a mostly human-driven ...
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Scientific context and motivation

By this project proposition, we shall try to analyse, quantify and compare the effects of a nearly “purely climatic” phenomenon and the effects of a mostly human-driven process and to provide an integrated image on the ways in which the animal environment was exploited by the prehistoric communities, at the transition from hunter-gatherers to farmers-breeders (7200 B.C. – 5000 B.C.), identifying and comparing different eco-cultural models developed in the northern Danube area (South of Romania). The investigations will cover two priority domains: of biodiversity evolution (e.g., taxonomic richness; magnitude of fauna turnover) and of correlative human societal transformations, especially in ...
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Project justification

The project is designed to fill in an important gap in the existing scientific knowledge on the research subjects proposed, and thus addresses a wide scientific audience. The estimated results will swiftly increase the visibility of the Romanian Holocene paleo-environmental and archaeological records, allowing for a direct correlation with the much more detailed data of Western Europe for the first time. The topics of the project are very complex, these kind of problems being only recently inquired in modern archaeological research at an international level (e.g., Boyd et al. 2011; Shennan 2011; Smith 2013 etc.). Moreover, as we have highlighted ...
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Methodology

The research methodology will be detailed, mentioning, as much as possible, some milestones. In the elaboration of this section the following aspects will be revealed: 1) Choosing the investigation methods and tools, by relating to the newest approaches in the field and also the way these will be integrated. At the level of the investigation methods, we intend to compare the indicators of evolution of the biodiversity established for the two sequences in order to address the following questions: (1) Were the taxonomic diversity changes induced by the climatic variations: in their magnitude, in their rhythm or in their nature ...
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Team of project

- Monica Mărgărit - project leader; - Adrian Bălăşescu - senior researcher - archeozoologist, specialization mammals; - Valentin Radu - senior researcher - archeoichtiologist and malacologist, specialization mollusks and fish; - Mircea Anghelinu - senior researcher - archeological background for the hunter-gatherers from the Romanian territory: - Loredana Niță - post-doctoral researcher - subsistence activities (hunting, food processing) reflected by the study of the lithic industries; - Adina Boroneanț - post-doctoral researcher - archeological background for the first farmers in the Romanian territory; - Mariana Prociuc - doctoral student - study of the animal bone materials (Mammalian class); - Ionuţ ...
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Objectives

Scientific report for 2015

Scientific report regarding the project implementation in the period October - December 2015 The first objective - Organizing the activities and drafting the project development plan for the entire team - due to its exclusively organizational character, will not have quantifiable results in the near future, but they will reflect, in exchange, during the entire period of the project implementation. Thus, in the weekly reunions, with the entire team of the project, we identified the action strategies and we made a planning of the working program, for each of the team members. An important activity of this objective had in ...
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Scientific report for 2016

Scientific report 2016 regarding the project implementation in the period January – December 2016 Starting from the problematic aimed in this project, correlated with the period when the project was implemented (January – December 2016), the specific objectives were structured thus: First objective of the project was the accomplishment of the field research, of the lab research and of the experimental interdisciplinary research, with the purpose of obtaining a maximum of information regarding the analyzed subject. The field research aimed the some working travels in the area of the Iron Gates, where most of the Mesolithic sites from the Romanian ...
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M. Mărgărit, V. Radu, A. Boroneanț, C. Bonsall, Experimental studies of personal ornaments from the Iron Gates Mesolithic, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (ISI journal), 2017, doi:10.1007/s12520-017-0522-5

Personal ornaments, especially those made from the shells of marine mollusks and animal teeth, have been recovered from many Mesolithic sites across Europe. This paper reviews the evidence of personal ornaments from the Mesolithic of the Iron Gates, where such finds were identified in five sites on the Romanian bank: the cave and rock shelter sites of Climente II and Cuina Turcului, and three open air sites – Icoana, Ostrovul Banului and Schela Cladovei. The ornaments from these sites were made from the shells of several gastropod taxa and at least one species of Dentaliid scaphopod, as well as the ...
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M. Mărgărit, A. Boroneaț, C. Bonsall, ANALIZA MORFOLOGICĂ ȘI FUNCȚIONALĂ A PIESELOR DIN MATERII DURE ANIMALE DIN SITUL MEZOLITIC DE LA OSTROVUL BANULUI (JUD. MEHEDINȚI), Banatica (BDI journal) (in evaluation)

The Mesolithic site at Ostrovul Banului was investigated by Vasile Boroneant in 1966, prior to the building of the Iron Gates I hydroelectric dam. 227 items made of hard animal materials (in various stages of manufacturing) were the subject of the present research. Four categories of raw materials were identified: deer antler, long bone diaphyses, teeth (mammals and fish) and gastropod shells. All raw materials could have been obtained locally, suggesting their direct acquisition and processing by the Mesolithic community. The typological range is limited, but comprises well-defined tool series. The most representative were antler chisels, bone points and tusk ...
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M. Mărgărit, A. Boroneanț, INDUSTRIA MATERIILOR DURE ANIMALE DIN SITUL MEZOLITIC DE LA ALIBEG (JUD. CARAȘ‐SEVERIN), Materiale și Cercetări Arheologice XIII, 2017, p. 15–30

The Mesolithic settlements in the Iron Gates have yielded rich assemblages of antler, bone and Sus scrofa canines, exemplified here by the site of Alibeg (Romania). These raw materials represent for the Iron Gates region, a hallmark of local Mesolithic. The typological categories identified are bevelled tools, scrapers, preforms and blanks. Debsitage remains are also present, indicating on‐site raw material processing. All three categories of raw materials were readily available from the animals that were killed, and analysis of the faunal remains identified a Cervus elaphus and Sus scrofa bones within the mammalian assemblage. Our study aimed to identify the ...
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Monica Mărgărit, Pavel Mirea, Valentin Radu, Aquatic resources exploitation for adornments and tools processing at Măgura ”Buduiasca” (”Boldul lui Moș Ivănuș”) Neolithic settlement (Southern Romania), Quaternary International (ISI journal) (in evaluation)

Măgura ”Buduiasca” (”Boldul lui Moș Ivănuș”) settlement has an important place among the Prehistoric settlements from the Balkans territory. It is characterize by a continuous inhabiting since Early Neolithic, until Early Chalcolithic, that allows us to sketch the evolution of the utilitarian pieces and personal adornments regarding the raw materials and the patterns of their processing. A first example is that of the local bivalves (Unio sp.), which were exploited in an opportunistic manner: in the first stage an important source of food and secondary, as a source for producing artefacts, by recovering valves from domestic waste. Another category of ...
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Monica Mărgărit, Pavel Mirea, Adrian Bălășescu, Can the way bones are worked help reconfigure cultural identities? Three cases of ‘manufacture-by-wear’ technique, Archaeofauna (ISI journal) (in evaluation)

This paper proposes to identify changes in the processing of osseous materials in the southeastern European Neolithic, beginning with three cases of production by manufacture wear technique (bipartition by abrasion, segmentation with abrasive fibers and perforation by wear technique). The processing of osseous materials is strongly conditioned by their natural anatomic shape which is why a limited array of possible transformation variables would be expected with minimum changes through time. Still, these three types of bone manufacturing techniques are not found throughout the prehistory of this region. Some of these techniques appear on worked osseous materials in Romania and neighboring ...
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Monica Mărgărit, Adrian Bălășescu, Pavel Mirea, Technological exploitation of osseous materials in the Dudești level of Măgura ‘Buduiasca’ (‘Boldul lui Moș Ivănuș’), Teleorman county, Buletinul Muzeului Județean Teleorman – seria Arheologice (BDI journal), nr. 8/2016, p. 5-31

In the Măgura „Buduiasca” („Boldul lui Moș Ivănuș”) settlement, the first Neolithic inhabitants (Starčevo-Criș I) had settled in the ‘Bold’, and in a later stage of early Neolithic (Starčevo-Criș III) the inhabitance had extended henceforth to the entire ‘Buduiasca’ area where it also endured during middle Neolithic (Dudești and Vădastra). Among the studied archaeological levels, Dudești is representative for the hard animal materials industry. It has been processed in particular the bone coming mostly from domestic animals (Bos taurus, Ovis aries/Capra hircus) and less the Sus scrofa tooth and Cervidae antler. It is evident the correspondence between animal species exploited ...
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Monica Mărgărit, Cristian Eduard Ștefan, Valentin Dumitrașcu, The exploitation of animal resources in Șoimuș – La Avicola (Ferma 2) settlement (Romania), Documenta Praehistorica (BDI journal), XLIII (2016), p. 364-397

The aim of this paper is to make known an extremely interesting archaeological assemblage, coming from the archaeological research carried out at the settlement of Șoimuș-La Avicola (Ferma 2) (Romania). The relevance of the study is also underlined by the fact that, until today, it is the only osseous assemblage published for Turdaș culture. It is numerically representative, with 901 pieces, among which 796 of bone, 94 of antler, 8 of tooth and 3 of valve. Within the bone pieces, our attention is drawn by the high standardization in the selection of the blanks, with a predominance of the Bos ...
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Adina Boroneanț, Adrian Bălășescu, Faunal remains from the Early Neolithic layers of the Cuina Turcului rock shelter. Alexandra Bolomey in memoriam, MATERIALE ŞI CERCETĂRI ARHEOLOGICE (BDI journal), XII, 2016 (p. 27–44)

The present paper originated in Alexandra Bolomey’s partial (and often incomplete) notes and unfinished manuscripts on the Early Neolithic faunal remains from the Cuina Turcului rock shelter. Most of the information they contained was never published, with the exception of some general data included in two papers that appeared in 1973. Little as it was, such information was often quoted by other scholars when dealing with Early Neolithic archaezoology, making the publication of the existing information even more urgent and important ...
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Monica Mărgărit, Testing the endurance of prehistoric adornments: Raw materials from the aquatic environment, Journal of Archaeological Science (ISI journal), vol 50, 2016 (p. 66-81)

Raw materials deriving from the aquatic environment were systematically used for personal ornamentation by modern humans throughout their entire history. In this study we analyse three types of raw materials: Lithoglyphus sp. shells, Unio sp. valves andCyprinus carpio opercular bones. The central purpose of this paper is to initiate a database of the way in which wear develops according to the system of attachment and the longevity of use. In order to identify the costs invested in the manufacturing of these types of items, both from the point of view of time and effort, an experimental programme has been developed, ...
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Monica Mărgărit, Camelia – Mirela Vintilă, New information from old collections. Reevaluation of personal adornments made of hard animal materials from the necropolis of Cernica, Studii de Preistorie, nr. 12, 2015 (BDI journal) (p. 81-115)

The study of the personal adornments category proves to be vital for the understanding of individual and of the means of treating the body, at Prehistory level. The purpose of this article is to reevaluate adornments made of hard animal materials, present in the Neolithic necropolis of Cernica. This was researched along a period of 13 years (1961-1974), benefiting also of an exhaustive monograph, which offered a general picture regarding the disposal of the tombs and of the funerary inventory from the necropolis, associated to each skeleton. In a first stage our study aimed to identify the raw materials from ...
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PROJECT CODE

National RDI Plan 2007 – 2013
Human Resources Program
Subprogram: Research Projects to Stimulate the Establishment of Young Independent Research Teams – TE
Scientific Domain: Humanities
Project Number: 49/01.10.2015
Project Code: PN-II-RU-TE-2014-4-0519
Subdomain: The Study of the Human Past: Archaeology, History And Memory
Project Duration: 24 Months
Contracting Authority: Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation (UEFISCDI)
Host Institution: Valahia University of Târgoviște
Project Leader: PhD Monica Mărgărit
Budget: 550.000 Lei

CONTACT

Project leader: Monica Mărgărit
Valahia University of Targoviște
Adress: B-dul Regele Carol I, No. 2, Targoviște, Dambovița County
e-mail: monicamargarit@yahoo.com
e-mail: eneolithicbonetools@gmail.com